What we do Sustainability Taking climate action

Taking climate action

It is a plan for the future that starts with our past. At a time where the planet is facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, taking bold climate action is crucial. As a model company, we have a responsibility to do more than most and to drive change in VELUX, our sector and beyond. We have committed to the most ambitious pathway of the Paris Agreement and to go beyond our value chain to capture our entire historical emissions from operations.

How we are taking climate action 

1. We will finance forest projects that capture carbon equivalent to our entire historical emissions from our operations by our 100-year anniversary in 2041. This will be achieved through a 20-year partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) by investing in forest conservation projects that benefit people, nature and climate.

2. By 2030, we will achieve a 100% reduction in our operational emissions by improving energy efficiency and switching to renewable electricity, and a 50% reduction in our value chain emissions. We will achieve our ambitious targets in collaboration with suppliers, partners and other organisations.

 

Partnering with WWF 

We will finance forest projects that capture the equivalent of our historical CO2 emissions. The projects are developed and managed by WWF. Our twenty-year partnership will deliver a portfolio of forest projects in tropical landscapes with high biodiversity value that will create positive change for people, nature and climate.

The carbon captured from these forest projects will be donated to the host countries’ climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. This means that the carbon captured by the forest projects will not be used for off-setting of VELUX carbon emissions or any other organisation’s emissions.

By 2041, it is expected that the forest protection and restoration projects will have captured at least 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of all CO2e emitted by the VELUX Group (scope 1 and 2) since it was founded in 1941. To increase the likelihood that the forest projects will reach this target, the projects will be designed with a 25% built-in CO2 buffer bringing the total potential capture to approximately 5.6 million tonnes of CO2.

Read more about our partnership with WWF
VELUX and WWF partnership
VELUX reduce future carbon footprint

A call to action to inspire others

Together with WWF, we hope to raise the bar for corporate climate and nature action, and encourage other businesses to take responsibility for both past and future carbon emissions. It will hopefully contribute to a widespread business shift towards a climate resilient society, while reversing the decline in biodiversity around the world.

The challenge to calculate historical emissions

No standard methodology exists today for how to calculate a historical carbon footprint. Therefore, we developed a method to calculate our historic carbon emissions based on the recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard and applied this to our historical data. This unique methodology, including the underlying assumptions, was independently verified by Carbon Trust and reviewed by scientific experts at WWF. 

VELUX and WWF partnership
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Definitions of Scope 1, 2 and 3

Scope 1 includes direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, e.g. company facilities, company cars.

Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company.

Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain, e.g. purchased goods and services, waste generation and transportation.